It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. But I actually did The Tower, which was another one, with Liam Hood as one of the Executives at STV and he was Producer of that and that was very good, it was all about a television station a way out in the country but that was very good. I mean, I remember Macdonald coming to me and then saying, "Your ratings, you've got 89% of viewing figures" and I said, "Oh, I'm sorry about that! I would come back from school and go up to the bedroom in front of a long mirror and would act things I'd seen in the pictures - Humphrey Bogart and such. So I went next door to the top spot, which was the pub, next to the Theatre Royal which is where STV originally was and I had a gin and tonic and I'm sitting there and about ten minutes later Jimmy came in and said, "I've been looking for you!

Nowadays, of course, you've got it on your wristwatch, away on your feet, or in your ear or any way you like so I mean that's the reason, I think, a lot of things have disappeared. Originally airing at around 5pm on weekdays, the show moved to a Saturday timeslot in 1972, before moving again to Sunday afternoons in January 1974. He went for an audition and, instead, was offered a job as a driver supporting performers in Abergavenny.As his ninth decade draws to a close, Michael has earned the right to name drop and live through his past accomplishments. The organisation, long since defunct, was often jokingly referred to as Every Night Something Awful.

That appearance was at the old Paisley Theatre, where he did a comedy spot of his own as part of the bill. R: Hugh McLauchlan, on the show and he nodded to me a few times and I didn't say very much over years and it wasn't until, oh, I think it must have been four or five years and I suddenly thought, 'I think I know this guy! I was guilty about taking the money for doing something that was really enjoyable and, I think, without exception all of the crew say the same thing. My double life didn’t bother me until last year when my son Christopher came to the theatre and later told me “I don't like you in this, dad”. Forget Ant and Dec and Tony Hart; Michael is likely the longest-serving children's entertainer in history.I remember coming up, because we lived in Ayr most of our life, our working life, and I remember coming up to do a recording and coming in to the studios and I thought, 'Ahh, I haven't brought Totty the Robot! I remember I did the opening night of, I used to do Thursday nights on Radio Clyde, six and a half years, as I said, and I remember the first night I did it.

I forget the name of the group now but he had hair and everything as a young man and he came on the show.Still, the day Michael was forced to chuck out the thousands of letters and cards children had sent to the show to be read on air - 2000 a week during the show's peak - was heartbreaking. In the episode, Michael receives a coconut and some flowers in the mail (in an attempt to recreate the Nintendo game Animal Crossing) and sends a thankful letter in response. Michael is rightly proud of his long and varied career, which began at the age of 17 and spanned theatre, variety, comedy and film.